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Potential accord on greensward has place on Council agenda

The ordinance will be up for the first of three readings Tuesday, meaning final approval could come as early as June 7, and could put additional pressure on the Zoo and the OPC to find a long-term solution to the Zoo using the grassy area in the...

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Potential accord on greensward has place on Council agenda

The Commercial Appeal
Published 10:33 a.m. CT April 29, 2016

March 5, 2016 - Matthew Montgomery, 8, leaps parking cones as a group of protesters gather on the Greensward Saturday in opposition of a City Council decision this week to turn the Greensward over to the Memphis Zoo for parking. Overflow parking took over a quarter of the Greensward, a typical turn out for a warm Saturday. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)(Photo: Jim Weber)

Anticipating a compromise between the Memphis Zoo and the Overton Park Convervancy on greensward parking, the Memphis City Council is drafting a placeholder ordinance, council chairman Kemp Conrad said today.

The ordinance will be up for the first of three readings Tuesday, meaning final approval could come as early as June 7, and could put additional pressure on the Zoo and the OPC to find a long-term solution to the Zoo using the grassy area in the park for overflow parking on peak attendance days.

"Mayor (Jim) Strickland previously announced a June 30, 2016, deadline for the parties to find common ground, and the council is equally serious about the deadline," Conrad said in a statement.

"All we're trying to do is put the ball in motion," Conrad added when contacted.

The Zoo and the OPC have participated in mediation since March 24, following the council's approval of a resolution earlier that month giving control over much of the greensward to the Zoo.

The proposal of the ordinance follows Strickland's announcement Thursday that, as a result of the mediation, he and the Zoo would create between 225 and 325 new parking spaces. He outlined the plan the day before the Zoo opened its Zambezi River Hippo Camp exhibit.

To create the new spaces, the city will add on-street parking in the southern lane of North Parkway near Rhodes College, and the Zoo will reconfigure its existing parking lot, following the recommendation of a recently released Overton Park Conservancy-commissioned parking and traffic study.

Those ideas have been around, but Strickland said at the opening of the Zoo's new exhibit that this will be the first action to start solving the greensward parking dispute.

"We are much closer to a resolution on this in three short months of mediation than we have been in a year," he said. "You've got to remember, people have been parking on the Greensward for close to 30 years, and in three months we've been making progress and I'm very hopeful we will resolve the issue."

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